New Audio Tape Undermines Claims By President of Young Republicans

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

GoLocalProv News Team

For the second time in two days, claims by the President of the RI Young Republicans have been undermined by an audio tape released by his accuser.

On Monday night, Rob Sullivan, President of the Young Republicans, posted to the organization’s website deny that he misused his office or that he removed Rachel Hussey from the group after their personal relationship soured.

Sullivan in his statement wrote, “Let me be perfectly clear: the accusation that her expulsion was triggered by our non-existent ‘personal relationship’ and the mention of ‘sexual harassment’ is proven completely false by real evidence of her wrongdoings in an attempt to smear our public reputation which is why I feel this statement is necessary.”

AUDIO CLIP: LISTEN ABOVE

But a new tape provided by Hussey captures a conversation between the two about the personal sexual relationship. Hussey claims that when their relationship ended - after confronting him about another woman, in a situation that escalated on both sides - Sullivan unilaterally expelled her from the organization.

When Sullivan was reached about how the recording discredited his statement about their relationship — he admitted that he did, in fact, have a history of "hooking-up" with Hussey. But, he repeatedly claimed that it had nothing to do with her removal.

"There hasn't been hooking up (recently)...it was in the beginning. And I said all I wanted to be was friends," said Sullivan. "And she's lying about not knowing about the other girl. She knew about it."

Hussey is frustrated that Sullivan, de facto, unilaterally ousted her from the organization because their relationship ended.

Second False Statement

This is the second time Sullivan has been caught in a lie about the key events of Hussey’s dismissal and their relationship.

On Monday GoLocal reported, Hussey is alleging she was ousted from the political organization after a relationship with Sullivan went sour. He denied the charge, but a taped phone conversation undermined his claims.

She said that after confronting Sullivan about a relationship with another woman, that after several exchanges that involved contacting the police by both parties, that he told her she was expelled from the group.

Sullivan denied the expulsion -- but Hussey provided a taped a phone call in which Sullivan told her she was out, which is inconsistent with his comments to GoLocal on Sunday. In the call, Sullivan said she had violated multiple by-laws and in an interview with GoLocal he said he did not want her at a GOP event because he feared for her mental health.

On Monday, the national Young Republicans told GoLocal that they are investigating multiple grievances filed against Sullivan. “I can confirm that Young Republican National Federation (YRNF) has received multiple grievances against Chairman Sullivan, including Ms. Hussey's. We take these matters very seriously, especially allegations of sexual harassment. We are presently investigating all claims made against Chairman Sullivan and hope to adjudicate this matter quickly,” said Chris Godbey, YRNF Executive Director.

“Moreover, we are certainly disappointed that there is a misrepresentation of the national organization by Chairman Sullivan’s behavior, as this does not reflect on the tens of thousands of members of our organization that work tirelessly around the nation in our mission to recruit, train, and elect Republicans. Our organization is focused on bringing new members into the organization to promote our Republican values, not seeking to expel individuals who are interested in that effort,” added Godbey.

Both tapes were provided by Hussey after Sullivan made claims and they were sent to GoLocal to validate her claims. Hussey will be the first to admit that the relationship did not end well and that both used poor judgment including phone calls back and forth and calls tot he police.